The Sinosphere · Volume 27, The Iron Pot, the Frozen Pear and the Railway’s Own Sausage
Di San Xian
Liaoning and Jilin
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 25 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Di san xian, "three fresh things from the earth," is named for potato, aubergine and green pepper harvested in the same season.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 as a side. About 25 minutes.
Ingredients
- 220 g potato, cut into thick chunks
- 160 g aubergine, roll-cut into rough chunks
- 90 g green pepper, cut into chunks
- for frying oil, for frying
- 10 g each scallion and garlic, chopped
- to taste light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, a little sugar, salt
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with a little water
Method
- Heat a generous depth of oil in a wok to a moderate frying temperature. Fry the potato first, two and a half to three minutes, until just tender at the edges; remove.
- Fry the aubergine until golden; remove. Fry the green pepper briefly, the shortest of the three; remove. Drain all three of excess oil.
- Pour off most of the oil, leaving a little fresh oil in the wok, and fry the scallion and garlic briefly.
- Return the three vegetables to the wok, add the soy sauce, wine, sugar and salt, and toss over high heat for about a minute.
- Stir through the cornstarch slurry to lightly bind the sauce, and serve immediately.
What a modern chef changes
A dehydrator instead of a longer fry, for a crisper result with less oil absorbed.
Not a numbered rung; a direct application of the reader's own equipment.
Method
- Dry the cut potato and aubergine briefly on a rack or in a low dehydrator pass, twenty to thirty minutes, before frying, drawing off surface moisture so both fry to a crisper finish in less time and take on less oil.
- Fry each vegetable separately at a measured, higher temperature, around 170 to 180°C, rather than the gentler heat the traditional method allows for, timing each closely with the loss of a slower first fry to work with.
- Finish the sauce off the heat, tossing the fried vegetables through it away from direct flame, so the coating stays glossy rather than reducing further and clinging heavily.